Bridging Old Ways with a New View – Amber DuBoise Shepard

On this episode of Beyond the Art, we meetwith Navajo Nation citizen Amber Dubois Shepherd. Ambers gives us an insight on how she grew up in a home immersed with the different Native American tribal cultures and languages, her mother’s people, the Navajo, as well as her father’s people, the Sac & Fox and Prairie Band Potawatomi.

Amber’s own artistic path has given her the ability to work with old and new artistic practices in various ways to create a bridge for viewers to see these traditions differently in a visual way. She wants to invite the viewer to be a part of her world and see the traditions the way she sees them in her everyday life. Amber wants her artwork to reach out and connect with others; to let them know we may be different, but to know we are all human beings. Her hope is that her artwork will give the viewer a perspective of what it looks like to be a Native in America and in Oklahoma today. Amber’s pieces have an illustrative and narrative quality with them as she bridges traditional Native American subjects with a more modern contemporary style.